Permanent, full-time jobs an endangered species: OPSEU

Union launches website with call for Ontario politicians to take a position on part-time, temporary work

05/15/2013|labour-reporter.com|Last Updated: 05/15/2013

Permanent full-time jobs are an endangered species, according to the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU).

The union, on the verge of going on strike against the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO), has launched a new website — www.parttimeaction.ca — in an effort to “provoke an Ontario-wide debate on part-time, temporary and ‘precarious’ forms of work,” it said in a press release.

“The demolition by employers of the standard full-time permanent job is the biggest labour market story of the last generation, yet it has largely been ignored by legislators,” said OPSEU president Warren (Smokey) Thomas. “This website will be a rallying point for people who are concerned about part-time, temporary, unstable work and want to do something about it.”

Thomas wants all political parties in the province to “state clearly what their plan is to improve jobs for part-time, temporary, temp agency and self-employed workers so they can live decently, bring their children up the way they want to and maybe, just maybe, retire with dignity.”

Part-time, casual work is one of the key points in the ongoing negotiations with the LCBO, he said.

“The casuals at the LCBO are not true casuals. The fact is, they are permanent part-time and full-time staff, and they should be treated as such.”